Blood pressure and heart rate determination by radiotelemetry in mice

Mice are not commonly used in cardiovascular physiology, especially in space physiology because of methodological problems. The initial studies that have monitored arterial pressure and heart rate in mice used the tail cuff plethysmography method or classical catheterization techniques with a catheter liable to an external pressure transducer. But for long term arterial pressure measurements the studies have been facilitated by the development of radiotelemetry. This is a less constraining method as classical one allowing to monitor in continuous in freely moving animal blood pressure, heart rate and temperature. This technique allows to record these parameters thank to an implanted transmitter without physical connection with the monitoring system. The aim of this work was to valid the use of the radiotelemetry in mice to evaluate arterial blood pressure and heart rate during different stress conditions (but only control data are described in this paper).